July 31, 2001
Souvenir Album:

Orca; Cordova;
Valdez

The tiny
village of Orca, site of a fish cannery, played a
critical role during the 1899 Harriman Alaska
Expedition. After the George W. Elder broke
one of its iron propellers exploring Harriman
Fjord, the ship returned to Orca, where repairs
were made. The cannery thrived for many years,
backed by its own fishing fleet, but eventually
went under. Now about the only activity on the
grounds are the wanderings of these goats.
(Photo by
National Ocean Service, NOAA).

Without the
cannery, current residents of Orca are working to
turn the grounds into a bed and breakfast
establishment. Taking advantage of the magnificent
location on the shores of Prince William Sound, the
site has some other attractions, such as this
massive iron stove. A plate on the side identifies
it as an "Alaska" model, made by the Washington
Stove Works in Everett, Washington, on the unusual
date of "2-30-98." (Photo
by National Ocean Service, NOAA).

Cordova, a
lively town not too far from Orca, is a major
Alaskan fishing port. The harbor was packed when we
arrived; virtually all the fishing boats were tied
up due to a strike. Cordova is also the home of the
Prince William Sound Science Center and the Prince
William Sound Oil Spill Recovery Institute.
(Photo by
National Ocean Service, NOAA).

Everyone in
Alaska has an opinion about the oil industry and
oil drilling, and nowhere are the opinions stronger
than in Valdez Arm, a wide fjord off Prince William
Sound. You soon see why: cut into the Chugach
Mountains on the north side of the fjord is the
massive Trans Alaska Pipeline Marine Terminal at
Valdez. Compared to the mountains, the huge
terminal is tiny, but the terminal represents money
and power. (Photo
by National Ocean Service, NOAA).

If you want
to visit the Marine Terminal, you must first go
through airport-style security, with all personal
items screened by scanners. You then are loaded
onto buses, and the buses, while they take you
through much of the terminal, never get very close
to anything. About the closes approach to any
facility is this ballast cleaning tank, where
tanker bilge and ballast water is pumped ashore and
separated from oil. (Photo by Jonas K.
Parker).

Tours of the
Marine Terminal put an emphasis on the marvelous
technology of the place, such as Berth #1. In order
to cope with the massive tides in Valdez, the
entire berth is mounted on floats, and rises and
falls with the tide. The tower on the berth is used
for directing all loading operations; it takes
about twelve to eighteen hours to fill a tanker.
(Photo by Megan Litwin).

From Prudoe
Bay on the Arctic Ocean to Valdez, the Trans Alaska
Pipeline (almost universally called "tap") travels
slightly over 800 miles, and it requires regular
maintenance. Jonas Parker, a Harriman Retraced
student from Sitka, stands next to a "pig," a
rubbery plug that is pushed by the oil through the
pipeline and scrapes deposits from the inner
surface. (Photo by Layton J. Lockett).

The Marine
Terminal complex has nicely paved roads -- and
peculiar speed limit signs. All the speeds are
marked with peculiar values: 11, 16, 21, 26, 29
miles per hour. The odd signs are part of the
terminal's safety program, operating on the theory
that the unusual number will force drivers to pay
more attention to the speed limits. The tour guides
seemed evenly split on the program's effectiveness.
(Photo by Megan Litwin).

These giant
tanks, collectively, can hold the entire contents
of the 800 mile long Trans Alaska Pipeline on any
given day. Around the base of each tank is a
concrete pen, designed to trap any oil that might
leak out of a tank if it were to rupture. The tour
operators emphasized the safety and environmental
engineering built into the complex, occasionally
suggesting it was overkill -- and at no time ever
mentioned the Exxon Valdez oil spill of
March 24, 1989. (Photo
by National Ocean Service, NOAA).

When the
expedition ship pulled into Valdez, it docked at a
place the locals called "Fantasy Island," featuring
these oddly out of place grain silos. Apparently a
group had an idea that the area should try to
diversify the economy and export barley. The grain
silos were built to hold the barley, and only
afterward was it determined that barley couldn't be
grown commercially in the cold, wet, overcast
environment, especially with the short summer
growing season. Hence the name "Fantasy Island."
(Photo by
National Ocean Service, NOAA).

Video

Panoramic
clip of Cordova's harbor. The clip starts with a
view towards the town, and ends looking toward the
blue roof of the Prince William Sound Science
Center. What appears to be smoke is actually a low
cloud cover; it was raining while the clip was
shot. (QuickTime format, 320 x 240 pixels, 14
seconds, 2.2 megabytes. RealVideo alternative.)
(Photo by National Ocean Service, NOAA)

Panoramic
clip of the Trans Alaska Pipeline Marine Terminal,
taken from a viewpoint on the mountain side behind
the terminal. The clip moves from a supertanker
loading at one berth, past the power plant with its
tall stack, past the floating Berth #1, and ends at
one of the tank farms. The audio contains random
conversations by expedition members. (QuickTime
format, 320 x 240 pixels, 16 seconds, 2.5
megabytes. RealVideo alternative.)
(Photo by National Ocean Service, NOAA)